The Red Bari

Burned Into Being: Landscapes of the Future

In association with
The Red Bari
In collaboration with
Curator's Note

In these works by Samindranath Majumdar, landscapes serve as spaces where the past and future intertwine. Each image—a fractured boat, an ancient tortoise, a house long abandoned—speaks not only of what once was but hints at a future sculpted by the forces of climate change and human apathy. Produced with pyrography, these scenes suggest that the landscapes Majumdar creates are not mere relics of the past but premonitions of what is yet to come.

Experimentation-prone Majumdar’s use of pyrography is more than just a technique; it is a means of revelation. By burning lines into thick, acid-free paper, he transforms fragile surfaces into landscapes marked by both time and elemental force (...). Each stroke darkened by fire exposes layers beneath, conjuring textures of weathered stone, wood and eroded structures. This method imbues these forms with life—akin to geological processes of slow accumulation and erosion—pressed further by the intensifying changes in climate and environment. With their charred marks and layered depth, Majumdar’s landscapes evoke not abandonment but a process of becoming (...).

In Majumdar’s hands, the ancient and contemporary collapse into one another, creating a new reality where survival is uncertain. His works, with their textured surfaces and scorched lines, suggest a future born from the ruins of the present (...). The wrecked ship, abandoned houses, tranquil water bodies and scattered traces of human presence evoke a world where human neglect and the cycles of nature leave their indelible marks.

Majumdar’s landscapes are not about loss but about endurance—about how even the most worn forms carry the resilience to persist. Each charred mark adds to an ongoing narrative shaped by the consequences of human action. Through these works, Majumdar reveals that history is not confined to the past, but embedded in the present, waiting to be uncovered.

In these works, there is a stillness, but within that calm resides the relentless passage of time. Majumdar’s landscapes, etched with fossils and burned into existence, point not to a lost past but to what remains after change, suggesting that every line and shadow speaks of transformation. These images invite the viewer into an archaeology of survival, offering a vision of landscapes alive with memory, awaiting the future they will reveal.

– (excerpt) Curator’s Note; Burned Into Being: Landscapes of the Future